Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most activist of them all?

We found that justices vary widely in their inclination to strike down Congressional laws. Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was the most inclined, voting to invalidate 65.63 percent of those laws; Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, was the least, voting to invalidate 28.13 percent. The tally for all the justices appears below.

One conclusion our data suggests is that those justices often considered more 'liberal' - Justices Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens - vote least frequently to overturn Congressional statutes, while those often labeled 'conservative' vote more frequently to do so. At least by this measure (others are possible, of course), the latter group is the most activist.

In other words, the reactionary theocrats want desperately to appoint "activist judges" who reshape laws according to religious conservative preferences. I say fuck 'em.